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off; explosive removal of a charge; explosion; letting off; as, a discharge of arrows, of artillery.

or wheels of, and render useless; to deprive of equipments or mountings; -- said esp. of artillery.

A small piece of artillery. [Obs.] Two or three shots, made at them by a couple of drakes, made them stagger. Clarendon.

ny business; a kind or method of military exercises; as, infantry drill; battalion drill; artillery drill.

The act or art of managing engines, or artillery. Milton.

uding from consideration; -- opposed to inclusive; as, five thousand troops, exclusive of artillery.

The mechanism for closing the breech of a breech-loading firearm, in artillery consisting principally of the breechblock, obturator, and carrier ring.

A cannon mounted on wheels, for the use of a marching army; a piece of field artillery; -- called also field gun.

-- Fire main, a pipe for water, to be used in putting out fire. -- Fire master (Mil), an artillery officer who formerly supervised the composition of fireworks. -- Fire office, an office at which to effect insurance against fire. -- Fire opal, a variety of opal giving firelike reflections. -- Fire ordeal, an ancien…

With child; pregnant. [R.] Heavy artillery. (Mil.) (a) Guns of great weight or large caliber, esp. siege, garrison, and seacoast guns. (b) Troops which serve heavy guns. -- Heavy cavalry. See under Cavalry. -- Heavy fire (Mil.), a continuous or destructive cannonading, or discharge of small arms. -- Heavy metal (Mil…

lar infantry of an army, as distinguished from militia, guards, volunteer corps, cavalry, artillery, etc.

y, in the British service, a gunner or a gunner's mate; one of the soldiers in a train of artillery, who assisted the gunners in loading, firing, and sponging the guns. [Obs.]

l.), the application of mechanical appliances to the mounting, dismounting, and moving of artillery. Farrow. -- Mechanical philosophy, the principles of mechanics applied to the inverstigation of physical phenomena. -- Mechanical powers, certain simple instruments, such as the lever and its modifications (the wheel a…

Heavy weapons of warfare; cannon, or great guns, mortars, and howitzers; artillery; sometimes, a general term for all weapons and appliances used in war. All the battlements their ordnance fire. Shak. Then you may hear afar off the awful roar of his [Rufus Choate's] rifled ordnance. E. Ererett. Ordnance survey, the off…

tc., when brought together; also, the objects themselves; as, a park of wagons; a park of artillery.

f loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, of a multitude, etc. "A fair peal of artillery." Hayward. Whether those peals of praise be his or no. Shak. And a deep thunder, peal on peal, afar. Byron.

With artillery, the point where the projectile first strikes the horizontal plane on which the gun stands, the axis of the piece being horizontal.

A body of men, either horse, foot, or artillery, commanded by a colonel, and consisting of a number of companies, usually ten.

A small piece of artillery. Wilhelm. On the bastions were planted culverins and sakers. Macaulay. The culverins and sakers showing their deadly muzzles over the rampart. Hawthorne.

A concentrated fire from pieces of artillery, as in endeavoring to make a break in a fortification; a volley.